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If you go to your CJ account and click on "get links" and then "advertiser list" you will get a list of all CJ merchants. Why there are only 1279, I don't know. CJ has claimed 40,000 in press releases, but we'll go with their number of 1279.

If you then click on "network earnings" you will sort by those who do the most on the CJ network.

You will find approx. 77 "new" merchants at the top, followed by approx. 59 $$$$$ merchants. We know by definition that those are the top 5% merchant earners for CJ.

We also know from statistics and history that the top 5% account for about 50-60% of the bulk of the sales, so we are talking about a significant $ amount.

So, if one of those $$$$$ merchants suddenly stopped, you'd think CJ would be concerned, no?

But in our case, we had a $$$$$ merchant who one day just stopped cold. Their site was offline. It took me 2 weeks to get CJ to "notice" and then another week for them to be deactivated. (Interestingly it took all 14 days of ZERO activity for their EPC to go to zero.) After a month offline, this merchant comes back. Runs for a month, yet we show ZERO sales. (Interestingly their EPC was none-zero!) This is the same merchant who was doing about 4 sales a day with us. (You can see my chart at: http://abw.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&...1&m=8516063851 )

So what conclusions do I draw from this?

1. CJ doesn't seem to care a bit if they lose a $$$$$ merchant. They don't even notice. And it was only after my persistent calls and emails did they do anything about it.

2. After the merchant came back, I was told they were making sales. After 4 weeks of sending them traffic and ZERO sales, (where we had been doing 4 a day) I called CJ and asked about it. I'm told "they are making sales." I ask CJ to chk my pages and code. "Looks perfect to me" I'm told. Still no sales. So that weekend, I do two test sales. By monday, and then by wednesday, those sales never show up. I called CJ on monday to inform them of this. I also note to them the affil. ID being set by the merchant in the cookie is not my ID despite the fact that they are going to the merchant site via my link. By Wednesday I get a phone call, the merchant has been deactivated.

3. Now believe it or not, I'm not that concerned about the merchant "scamming me." Well, okay, I am a bit, but what bothers me more is CJ's attitude. One of their top 59 merchants was recording ZERO sales for what added up to about 2 months. Based on our site alone, that was $20,000 in sales at least. Just from us. Don't forget, this was a $$$$$ merchant, so the number network wide had to be pretty big, but CJ's attitude is "oh well." They didn't even break a sweat that I could tell.

So if a 5 $ merchant can fall in the woods and CJ doesn't even notice, then how are we to have any confidence at all that CJ'd hear anything that is happening in the woods?

Disclaimer: I'm not ragging on CJ to cause dissent. I'm trying to point out a problem with a network that I like to use because I don't believe CJ is as "plugged into" this network as well as they should be. (In addition to the above, the "scumware issue" is another perfect example of this "lack of connection".)

Very embarrassing for CJ workers and probably the main reason merchants can turn off their reporting tags during peak shopping periods and only the affiliates might notice. You'd wonder if someone loudly passed gas in an elevator full of CJ worker bees if anyone would even notice.

Now if you challenge a merchant on their poor conversion ratio you'll get the standard answer ..I just don't know why your traffic just doesn't convert. They will also ignor a competitors stats on the same page which shows great conversion ratios from the same shopper pool.

We check for tracking problems on a daily basis and we have quite a few tools to support that process. We also have the ability to compensate for lost commissions due to Advertiser related tracking problems. More information can be found in the Advertiser Service Agreement under the section Ad Serving; Tracking Code Maintenance.

It used to be that creating lost tracking fees was a difficult process however that changed a few months ago. We now have some pretty slick internal tools. If you suspect any Advertiser tracking problems then please contact customer service.
==
Blaine

quote:Originally posted by mac:
We check for tracking problems on a daily basis and we have quite a few tools to support that process. We also have

That may be true, but you missed this one big, big time. For weeks, even after repeated emails and phone calls.

quote:

the ability to compensate for lost commissions due to Advertiser related tracking problems. More information can be found in the http://www.cj.com/adv_agreement.asp under the section _Ad Serving; Tracking Code Maintenance_.

It used to be that creating lost tracking fees was a difficult process however that changed a few months ago. We now have some pretty slick internal tools. If you suspect any Advertiser tracking problems then please contact customer service.
==
Blaine

quote: You are required to provide CJ with accurate, verifiable reporting on the number and amount of Visitor Transactions, or CJ shall determine (where possible) actual Payouts that should be credited to Your Publishers Account, and alternatively apply an estimated amount of Payouts (as follows), during any non-functioning period of Your Links and/or the Tracking Code, where: (a) You or Your agent serve Your Ad Content, and/or (b) due to Your negligent or intentional act or omission during such non-functioning period. If under the preceding circumstances You are unable or You fail to provide CJ with the Transaction information, CJ shall calculate Payouts, and debit Your Account for such Payouts ("Estimated Payouts") based upon Your average "Earnings Per One Hundred Clicks" ("EPC") plus 15%. "EPC" is calculated by taking the total aggregate Payouts of Your Publishers during the most recent 30 consecutive day period ("30 Day Period") divided by the number of Clicks generated on Links to Your Web site through the Network Service divided by 100, and then an additional 15% of such EPC added to the EPC per Estimated Payout. If there is not enough data for a 30 Day Period, CJ shall calculate Estimated Payouts, and debit Your Account for Estimated Payouts based upon an average EPC plus 15%, across the Network Service for all Advertisers for the previous calendar month.

This is from the Advertiser Agreement. It is how the calculate "lost" commissions. Still doesn't answer the question about what will trigger CJ to enforce this part of their policy. Not when what you hear from Customer support is that transactions are coming through, just not to you.

My point to CJ is still: What does it take for you to notice when a merchant is not recording sales?

1st clue: 0 day epc for a $$$$$ merchant (which we found out takes 2 full weeks of zero sales to get the epc to show zero. Which means a merchant could turn off tracking for 13 days and not trigger this one.)

4th clue: affiliate calls CJ "I was getting 2-10 sales per day. I've had nothing for 4 weeks. Can you please to check to see if anyone else is recording sales?"

5th clue: affiliate calls CJ "I placed two test orders, neither has shown up. I checked the cookie and it's setting a cookie, but the affiliate code being set is not mine"

3 days later CJ calls to tell me merchant has been deactivated.

Seems to me, there are only 59 $$$$$ merchants on the CJ network. If one of them goes down to zero sales, (or even 50% down from normal) you should have a person jumping up and down on a desk spinning a cat by it's tail over your head yelling "merchant down, merchant down, merchant down."

Okay, forget about the cat thing, we'll have peta all over us, but something needs to be done.